At
one time, Underwood and Underwood was the largest publisher
of stereoviews in the world, producing 10 million views a year.
Underwood & Underwood established itself in 1882 as a
stereographic distributing company. The company was founded by
two brothers, Elmer and Bert Underwood. The brothers developed
a selling system of thorough canvassing using college students.
They distributed stereographs for
Charles Bierstadt, J.F. Jarvis and
the Littleton View Company. By 1887, they outgrew their original
office in Ottawa, Kansas, and moved to New York City; offices
were also opened in Canada and Europe. In 1891 Bert learned how
to operate a camera and thus the firm of Underwood & Underwood
Publishing entered a new merchandising sphere. By 1897 the
company had a number of full-time staff and free lance
photographers. In the same year the Underwoods purchased the
businesses of Jarvis; Bierstadt; and,
William H. Rau. Underwood & Underwood
were publishing twenty-five thousand stereographs a day by 1901.
The firm still canvassed and sold its own stereographs. Around
1900 Underwood & Underwood introduced boxed sets, with specific
themes such as education and religion, and travel sets depicting
popular tourist areas of the world. By 1910 Underwood &
Underwood had entered the field of news photography. Due to this
expansion stereograph production was reduced until the early
years of World War I. Altogether Underwood & Underwood produced
between 30 000 and 40 000 stereographic titles. In 1920
stereograph production was discontinued and Underwood &
Underwood sold its stereographic stock and rights to the
Keystone View Company. The
negatives passed to Keystone which issued them with a "V"
prefix.

A typical Underwood gray mount view.
Notice the boxed set number 26 in the upper center as well as
in parenthesis at the lower center of the view. This photo
shows a fisherman boiling his catch at Fishing Cone in the West
Thumb Geyser Basin.

Another boxed set gray mount, this view
has only its boxed set number 22 in the lower center. Notice
how there is an absence of any 4 digit catalog number that so
often appeared on Underwood views. The verso of this view is
blank.

A common Underwood view type is this style
of gray mount It has both the 4 digit catalog number and the
boxed set number in parenthesis. It also has an extensive
description of the view on the reverse side. These views can be
readily found today.

(3) From Yellowstone Park, N. through its gateway over Gardiner to
Gallatin Range (left) and Buffalo Plateau. Copyright 1904 by Underwood & Underwood.

This boxed set view of the Roosevelt Arch
is much like the view (22) shown several photos above. However
this one has an elaborate reverse description.

This faded view of the Grand Canyon is a
rare European issue by the company. On the left side it
credits, "European Publishers, Underwood & Underwood." This
view was likely printed from their London office.